Turkey coup: military attempt to seize power from Erdogan as low flying jets and gunfire heard in Ankara and bridges across Bosphorus in Istanbul closed
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/turkey-low-flying-jets-and- gunfire-heard-in-ankara1/
Barney Henderson
15 JULY 2016 • 9:35PM
Coup attempt by parts of Turkish military against Erdogan
PM Yildirim: Nothing will harm Turkish democracy
Low flying jets and gunfire heard in Turkish capital
Both of Istanbul's bridges across the Bosphorus closed

9:34pm
Turkish military claims to have overthrown Erdogan and taken control of country
In a statement, the Turkish military says the rule of law must remain the priority.

9:27pm
'The army are taking over everything'
Gabriel Turner, 23, a management consultant from north London, is on holiday in Istanbul and described how there had been heavy police and security presence throughout the day before the military coup got underway after sunset.

He told The Telegraph:

"Earlier today there were police everywhere. I thought that was normal but the two Turkish girls I was with told me it wasn't normal. We were walking around the centre of Istanbul, at the Grand Bazaar there were police at every entrance and exit with lots of guns.

"A police helicopter was flying very low at sunset, it was about 8pm. It looked like it was searching for something. Later on, at about 10.30 I was in Karakoy, a bar area in the city centre and everyone started looking at their phones. A man who owns the bar told us that the army are taking over everything.

"Then we walked down towards the a quieter area by the sea. While we were walking, my friend said the army had closed brides across the Bosphorus. We could see army helicopters in the sky.

"We went inside a cafe and everyone was on their phones looking worried, texting. Lots of people were running to catch a ferry - because the bridges were shutting and people wanted to get home. Then policemen came out of the ferries on their walkie talkies, looking very alert."

9:03pm
Update from Istanbul
The Bosphorus and Fatih bridges were closed by the gendarmerie - a branch of the Turkish military dedicated to internal security - for traffic travelling from Asia to Europe, NTV television said. Traffic was still moving in the other direction.

Meanwhile, Turkish military aircraft were heard flying low over Ankara, AFP correspondents in the capital also reported. There was no immediate explanation for the cause of the incidents.

9:02pm
Rumours that Turkey has declared martial law on Twitter
All unconfirmed at this stage.

Split within far-right party could hold key to future of Turkish politics
#TurkishPolitics
Meral Aksener, a challenger within the Nationalist Movement Party, hailed as possible threat to Erdogan's rule

A row within Turkey’s leading far-right party could hold the key to the future of the country and potentially disrupt the continued rule of the governing Justice and Development party (AKP).

On Wednesday the rift between supporters of current Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli and supporters of challenger Meral Aksener came to blows during Eid celebrations in a hotel in Ankara.

The celebrations, which were initiated by Aksener, were interrupted by Bahceli supporters who chanted, “The leader of the movement is Devlet Bahceli!”

According to Hurriyet, glasses were thrown by both sides and a number of people were wounded in the fighting, while a gunshot was heard outside of the hotel.

Echoing the conspiratorial rhetoric of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Bahceli claimed that the US-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen had a hand in the disruption.

“The [only MHP] Eid celebration is the one here, today,” he said, referring to separate Eid celebration organised by his supporters.

“According to the information I received, any celebration other than this is a plot recommended by the Fethullah Gulen movement and their effort to put themselves in political and social ground once again.

“We will foil the plot.”

The rise of Aksener within the MHP has proved arguably the most significant new development on the Turkish parliamentary political scene since the emergence of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in the June 2015 elections.

The MHP lost 40 of its 80 parliamentary seats in elections last year under the almost 20-year leadership of Bahceli. Polls have indicated that should his stagnant leadership continue, the party could end up falling beneath the 10-percent vote threshold needed to enter the Turkish parliament, as they haemorrhage support to the AKP.

Conversely, polls suggest under Aksener’s leadership MHP support could rise above 20 percent, stealing seats from AKP that would undercut the support needed in parliament for a change in the constitution.

“Aksener, for many MHP supporters, is a committed technocrat, committed to actual governance and expanding the party's base with the right-wing of the Turkish electorate,” said Aaron Stein, resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.

“Aksener is an interesting political case because she is not actually a fresh face or a political insider, but rather a Turkish political lifer.

“Her main strength is that she is not Devlet Bahceli.”

The woman, who has already been touted as Turkey’s answer to Marine Le Pen, could eventually hold the balance of power in Turkey - though the controversial politics of the MHP, which has been labelled “neo-fascist” by some, mean this is unlikely to allay the concerns of Turkey’s allies about the direction of the country.

Dissident congress

The MHP was founded in 1969 after former military official Alparslan Turkes - a spokesperson for the 1960 military coup - took control of the Republican Villagers Nation Party and rebranded it the MHP, bringing it more in line with his ultra-nationalist, anti-communist views.

13:57 03.03.2016(updated 14:04 03.03.2016) Get short URL
Andrew Korybko
206561501
As unlikely as it may have sounded just under one year ago, the geostrategic situation has remarkably changed to such an extent that it now looks conceivable that the US might be ready to turn on Erdogan.

While Washington has certainly demonstrated mixed signals in this regard over the past couple of months, it might just commit to implicitly supporting a regime change scenario against Erdogan in order to safeguard the strategic gains that it's accomplished thus far with the Immigrant Crisis.

Building the Case

Three recent events in particular signify that the US is no longer providing unconditional and unwavering support for Erdogan:

Gulenist involved in killing of Russian pilot participated in #TurkeyCoupAttempt - says Ankara
https://t.co/qohHffwPbt_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

No airlines may fly from Turkey to the United States due to a Federal Aviation Administration order, U.S. government officials said Saturday.
“All airline carriers, regardless of country of registry, are prohibited from flying into the United States from Turkey either directly or via third country,” the U.S. Embassy in Ankara said.
In a message on its website, the Embassy warned travelers that “security at [Istanbul’s] Ataturk airport is significantly diminished.” It is, however, is open, and Turkish Airlines, the main carrier there, said Saturday that “the airport is now back to normal and flights have begun.”
The FAA has also banned any U.S. registered aircraft from flying into Turkey but that’s less of an issue for most people, as Delta, the last U.S. carrier that considered flying to Istanbul, recently suspended the service it had planned to start in May. The FAA’s ban also includes private aircraft, and that may affect some travelers.
The FAA did not say how long its ban would last.
“The FAA is monitoring the situation in Turkey in coordination with our partners in the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security and will update the restrictions as the situation evolves,” the FAA said in a statement.
The FAA’s decision is likely a bigger problem for Turkish Airlines, the global behemoth that had made U.S. flights a key part of its strategy. Like Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, Turkish tries to capitalize on its unique location to sell Americans one-stop itineraries to hard-to-reach places, especially in Africa, the Middle East and India.
Turkish flies nonstop to Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, Washington Dulles and Chicago.
On social media, passengers posted pictures of chaos at the airport, as hundreds tried to speak with airline employees.
The airline, however, said it was doing what it could. It released a statement asking passengers to go to special airline counters it was setting up in nearby hotels.

Fethullah Gulen, the US-based cleric accused by Ankara of orchestrating the coup attempt in Turkey, has a wide following in his native country, where he enjoys support among the police and judiciary.

The reclusive preacher, who lives in a tiny town in the Pocono Mountains of the US state of Pennsylvania, was immediately accused by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being behind the coup attempt.

"As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt. I categorically deny such accusations," Gulen said in a statement late Friday.

"I condemn, in the strongest terms, the attempted military coup in Turkey," read the two-paragraph statement.

"Government should be won through a process of free and fair elections, not force.

"I pray to God for Turkey, for Turkish citizens, and for all those currently in Turkey that this situation is resolved peacefully and quickly," he said.

Gulen, 75, was once a close ally of Erdogan but the two fell out in recent years as Erdogan became suspicious of Gulen's movement, Hizmet, and its powerful presence in Turkish society, including the media, police and judiciary.

The preacher moved to the United States in 1999, before he was charged with treason in his native country.

He has since led a secluded life in Pennsylvania, declining interviews and rarely making public appearances.

A 'state within a state'

The power struggle between the two foes came to a head in late 2013 after judicial officials thought to be close to Gulen brought corruption charges that directly implicated some of Erdogan's inner circle, including his son Bilal.

Erdogan launched a series of counterattacks, purging hundreds of army officers, including top generals, shutting down schools operated by Hizmet and firing hundreds of police officers.

Erdogan has also gone after newspapers believed to be sympathetic to his rival, firing their editors or shutting them down.

Turkish authorities have accused the preacher of seeking to establish "a state within a state" in Turkey, but Hizmet officials insist that Gulen is committed to democratic reform and interfaith dialogue.

"For more than 40 years, Fethullah Gulen and Hizmet participants have advocated for, and demonstrated their commitment to, peace and democracy," the Alliance for Shared Values said in a statement on Friday.

"We have consistently denounced military interventions in domestic politics. These are core values of Hizmet participants. We condemn any military intervention in domestic politics of Turkey."

The group said it did not wish to speculate on the unfolding crisis in Turkey and denounced as "highly irresponsible" comments by Erdogan's supporters concerning Gulen's involvement in the coup attempt.

Hizmet - meaning service in Turkish - advocates a mix of Sufi mysticism and harmony among people based on the teachings of Islam.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech in Istanbul, Saturday, July 16, 2016. Forces loyal to Erdogan quashed a coup attempt in a night of explosions, air battles and gunfire that left some hundreds of people dead and scores of others wounded Saturday. The chaos Friday night and Saturday came amid a period of political turmoil in Turkey _ a NATO member and key Western ally in the fight against the Islamic State group _ that critics blame on Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian rule. (AP Photo)
The Coup Failed, But Erdogan’s Wrath Keeps Investors on Edge
BATON ROUGE, LA - JULY 17: Baton Rouge Police officers patrol Airline Hwy after 3 police officers were killed early this morning on July 17, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. According to reports, one suspect has been killed while others are still being sought by police. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Three Officers Dead, Three Wounded After Shooting in Baton Rouge

Why the Pros Want to Draft E-Sports Stars
Foreign inflows set to ‘surely’ reverse: CrossBorder Capital
Lira tumbles most since 2008 on Friday after coup erupted
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Things were looking up for Turkey when investors went home on Friday afternoon.
Markets were rallying around the world on speculation global monetary policy was going to remain loose, there was a lull in the country’s fractious politics and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government was moving to normalize relations with Russia and Israel.
Now, after an attempted military coup that erupted at about 10 p.m. that evening in Ankara and Istanbul, sending the lira into its sharpest nosedive in about eight years, those investors are waking to a very different world, steeling themselves for a tumultuous trading session when local markets open on Monday.

“Political risk was always in my mind, but even I went ice-cold when I saw the news” of the coup attempt, Burak Cetinceker, a fund manager at Strateji Portfoy in Istanbul, said in an interview Saturday. “I don’t think I would rush into Turkish markets in the short term if I were a foreign investor.”
The failed takeover, in which about 200 people died, was the culmination of a worsening political backdrop partly fueled by Erdogan’s efforts to invest the presidency with increased powers while combating an upsurge in terrorist attacks blamed on Islamists and Kurdish separatists. The fighting that began Friday came less than three weeks after bombings at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul left more than 40 people dead, the latest in a series of deadly attacks in towns and cities across the country.
As confusion reigned Friday over whether the coup had succeeded, stocks around the world retreated and U.S. Treasuries advanced, while the lira tumbled 4.6 percent to 3.0157 per dollar, its biggest decline since 2008.
Though Turkey’s currency is likely to recover some of those losses now the violence has dissipated, longer-term investors may be more circumspect about investing in the nation’s assets as Erdogan seeks to root out opponents, detaining thousands of people, including army officers and judges.
Knee-Jerk Reaction
“The almost instant issuance of arrest warrants for thousands of members of the Turkish judiciary raises questions about the coup itself,” said Gary Greenberg, an emerging-markets manager at Hermes Asset Management in London, which manages $2.5 billion, including Turkish equities. “Although the knee-jerk reaction of the market on Monday might be one of relief, it is hard to feel entirely sure that democracy in Turkey is on firmer footing.”
Foreigners this year poured a net $7.3 billion into Turkish assets through May, after $3.2 billion of outflows in the same period a year earlier, data released by the central bank last week showed.
The recent pickup in foreign flows into Turkey “will now surely reverse, causing inevitable market distress,” Michael Howell, the managing director of CrossBorder Capital in London, said in an e-mail Saturday.

All of which threatens to unravel gains that have made Turkey one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global clamor for risk as central banks pump cash into the biggest economies. The Borsa Istanbul Index has climbed 15 percent this year, while the yield on Turkish five-year local bonds has dropped more than every other emerging-market nation except Brazil. The country’s five-year credit default swaps, the cost of protecting debt against default, fell to the lowest in a year last week.
For Peter Schottmueller, the head of emerging-market and international fixed income at Deka Investment GmbH in Frankfurt, investors will focus more on the stability Erdogan can bring back than the crackdown against his opponents.
“Maybe you and I prefer a more democratic government, but to the markets, it’s not relevant,” he said. “I’d be reluctant to sell on Monday.”
The rally in Turkish assets has come amid a slowing of inflation and easing of global liquidity that’s supported the currency and allowed the central bank to lower the overnight-lending rate by 175 basis points this year. Policy makers said Sunday they will provide unlimited liquidity to banks.
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Damage caused by military helicopter bombardments inside Turkey's parliament near the Turkish military headquarters in Ankara, Turkey, Saturday, July 16, 2016. Burhan Ozbilici / Press Association. All rights reserved.
On the evening of July 15, 2016, a friend called around 10:30pm and said that both bridges connecting the Asian and European sides of Istanbul were closed by military barricades. Moreover, military jets were flying over Ankara skies. As someone living on the European side of Istanbul and commuting to the Asian side to my university on a daily basis and spending many hours in traffic in order to do that, I immediately knew that the closure of both bridges was a sign of something very extraordinary taking place.

To confirm the news about the military jets over Ankara, I called my parents in Ankara. They answered the phone in a panic. I could hear military jets from the other end of the phone. Not surprisingly, my 86-year-old parents had experienced military coups in Turkey before. As I was talking breathlessly with my Dad, my Mum murmured from the other line calmly but firmly: “this seems like a coup d'état.”

From that point onwards, all hell broke loose especially in Ankara and Istanbul. The death toll in less than 24 hours after the coup attempt in Turkey is over 200. There are thousand of people who are wounded. Twitter and facebook became inaccessible during the early hours. The tv channels started broadcasting live from Ankara and Istanbul: yet, they were not sure what was going on at the outset. Shortly after, the military released a statement saying that the “military has seized all power in Turkey” through the state tv channel TRT. That is when I could not stop my tears, for memories flocked back of the September 12, 1980 coup d'état when a similar announcement was made. I had experienced that coup as a student in one of the most politically active universities in the country, the Middle East Technical University. The memories, as for many people of my generation, were painful.

Last nail in the coffin of critical thought
Within two hours, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was live on FaceTime on Turkish CNN (CNN Türk). His face could be seen on tv screens as it appeared on the phone held in the hand of the CNN Türk anchor. He issued a statement in this manner and urged the people to go to the public squares and the airport and defend the nation. Soon afterwards, there were echoes of calls to prayer from multiple minarets although it was not prayer time. I read later that there were also calls for action by Imams against the military urging people to take to the streets.

Joining the echo of the calls to prayers were the loud noises of military jets flying over Istanbul skies. The combination of these sounds made me think that yes, these were the sounds of the funeral of free speech, critical thinking, and any other remnants of liberal democratic process in Turkey. I realized in fear and agony that whether the coup was successful or not, one thing was certain: there would no longer be room in Turkey for people who can listen, read, analyze, and think critically. With the siren-like echoes of calls to prayer and military jets, Turkey was becoming a land only for true believers.

This did not happen suddenly. With the crackdown on media, academic freedoms, random arrests, and the increasing violence in the southeast provinces, citizens in Turkey have been facing major limitations on their basic freedoms for the past few years. The attempted coup d'état of July 15 is like the last nail in the coffin. Lying dead in the coffin was the courage to use one’s own understanding (as in Sapere Aude) that relentlessly resisted the rising tide of categorical thinking typical of true believers.

Sight of a parliament in ruins
The damage that was inflicted on the parliament building in Ankara was huge. Many of its major halls and corridors are in ruins. The sight was reminiscent of the Reichstag fire in Germany that took place on February 27, 1933, about a month after Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor. The similarities are not limited to the visible damage of both parliament buildings. The Reichstag fire was also a last nail in the coffin of the possibility of basic freedoms as well as critical thinking in Germany. On the evening of the Reichstag fire, Chancellor Hitler was relaxing at a dinner party in Joseph Goebbels’ home. The fire was soon blamed on a demented Dutch Communist named Marinus van der Lubbe who had a record of crimes of arson. The reality behind the Reichstag fire was not even clarified during the Nuremberg trials. Still, there was a lot of evidence that pointed to the responsibility of the Nazis behind it. But what was important was not so much who set fire to the Reichstag but rather what came out of it.

On the day following the Reichstag fire, juridical order was suspended by the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State (Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat). The decree involved the suspension of seven sections of the Constitution which guaranteed individual and civil liberties. The decree authorized the government to take complete control in the federal states and impose the death penalty for a number of crimes. In fact, Goering wanted to hang the arsonist on the spot right after his arrest. Today, I heard one journalist ask the Prime Minister on live television whether they were thinking of bringing back the death penalty in the aftermath of the attempt at a coup d'état. The Prime Minister responded by saying that they will consider every need for extra preventive measures. He also seemed to praise the violent mobs who took to the streets to oppose the coup d'état.

The Decree following the Reichstag Fire led to emergency measures that created a state of exception. It suspended the personal liberties listed in the Weimar Constitution, including the rights of personal freedom, freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, freedom of organization and assembly, and privacy of communication. The Decree was followed by the Enabling Act (23 March 1933) which enabled the cabinet to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag. In sum, it led to the consolidation of the Nazi regime (See: Ayşe Kadıoğlu “Necessity and State of Exception: Turkish State's Permanent War with its Kurdish Citizens” in Riva Kastoryano (ed), Turkey Between Nationalism and Globalization, Routledge, 2013). There are already signs of the suspension of the juridical order with dozens of members of the Council of State and Court of Cassation taken into custody in less that 24 hours after the coup état attempt.

I could not help but remember the days when the expression “consolidation” denoted the consolidation of democracy and the issues surrounding it in the literature on democratization in Turkey. After July 15, we now talk about the consolidation of a new type of authoritarianism in Turkey. Some call it competitive authoritarianism (See; Berk Esen and Sebnem Gumuscu, “Rising Competitive Authoritarianism in Turkey,” Third World Quarterly, 19 February 2016).

I believe the only 'given' is whoever comes out on top, will be a US 'Puppet'._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

'She claims to live a 'humble and modest' life with strict Muslim values, whiling away the hours in palace kitchen fermenting apples and turning them into vinegar.
But while her tyrant husband President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has amassed a £139million fortune with at least three palaces across Turkey, his 'shopaholic' wife Emine likes nothing more than spending money.
Emine Erdogan's jet-set lifestyle is a whirlwind of one shopping trip after another where her particular passions are designer clothes and expensive antiques.
As a quarter of her country live in extreme poverty and almost two million live on just £3 a day, the president's wife boasts she drinks specialist white tea at £1,500 a kilo… and drinks it from gold leaf glasses worth £250 each.

She once closed down a shopping mall in Brussels to go on a designer shopping spree and while accompanying her husband on an official visit to Warsaw in Poland blew through more than £37,000 while browsing an antiques bazaar.
Any items she found would no doubt be needed for the huge palace Erdogan has constructed in the foothills outside the Turkish capital Ankara.
Covering an area of 1.6sq miles the mega palace has cost more than £500m to build with no expense spared on its fixture and fittings.
From silk wallpaper costing as much as £2,000 a roll to £36,000 for each pair of double doors that are needed for the hundreds of rooms.
One estimate has the bill for more than 400 extra large double doors that measure 3.2m high by 2m wide at over £5m.
Add in the 450 single doors needed and the final bill for doors has been put at over £26m.
In keeping with the no expense spared build even carpeting for the 366,000 sq ft palace is more than £7m......'_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

Turkish navy ships still missing since attempted coup – as it remains unclear which side admirals are on
The commander of the Turkish navy has not been heard from since the failed coup

Samuel Osborne @SamuelOsborne93 8 hours ago
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan greets his supporters outside of his residence in Istanbul, Turkey, 19 July, 2016 Reuters
Several Turkish navy ships are still unaccounted for, their commanders suspected to be among the plotters who sought to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Admiral Veysel Kosele, the commander of the Turkish navy, has not been heard from since the failed coup on Friday, a source told The Times.

It is currently unknown whether he was part of the coup or was tricked on to the boat after coup plotters told him there was a terrorist attack and then taken hostage, local media reports suggested.

The 14 missing ships were reportedly on active duty in either the Aegean or the Black Sea and have not tried to make contact with naval headquarters or report back to the port.

It is suspected they may be heading to Greek ports. On Saturday, eight Turkish military officers took a helicopter to Greece to seek asylum.

Turkey's state-run news agency said courts have ordered 85 generals and admirals jailed pending trial over their roles in the botched coup attempt. Dozens of others are still being questioned.

Anadolu Agency said those formally arrested include former air force commander General Akin Ozturk, alleged to be the ringleader of the uprising, and General Adem Hududi, commander of Turkey's 2nd Army, which is in charge of countering possible threats to Turkey from Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Authorities have rounded up thousands alleged to have been involved in the coup, in which 208 government supporters and 24 coup plotters were killed. The government says Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric, was behind the coup.

Turkey failed coup: Thousands detained or dismissed
Thousands of officials suspected of links to him were purged from the judiciary and the Interior Ministry.

During the uprising, warplanes fired on government buildings and tanks rolled into the streets of major cities before the rebellion was put down by forces loyal to the government and pro-Erdogan civilians who took to the streets. The top brass did not support the coup.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said at a news conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry that the coup "is no excuse to take the country away from fundamental rights and the rule of law, and we will be extremely vigilant on that."

Mr Kerry said Turkey must "uphold the highest standards for the country's democratic institutions and the rule of law."

While he recognized the need to apprehend the coup plotters, he added: "We caution against a reach that goes beyond that."

What makes this latest example of Israel’s failure to stem the criminal activities of its intelligence service and criminal syndicates worse is that Turkey, unlike Israel, is a NATO ally of the United States and, therefore, the United States is bound by treaty to protect NATO allies from aggression by non-NATO states, including Israel.

The Turkish and other Middle East media are reporting that the Mossad has been fingered in connection with a right-wing Turkish criminal and intelligence gang, known as Ergenekon, that stands accused of attempting to overthrow Turkey’s democratically-elected Justice and Development (AKP) Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul. Several Turkish papers have named a Turkish rabbi, Tuncay Guney, aka Daniel T. Guney and Daniel Levi and code-named “Ipek” or “Silk,” as having served as a double agent for the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) tasked with infiltrating the shadowy but powerful “state within a state” group Ergenekon. Guney had been arrested by Turkish authorities in 2001 for distributing fake drivers’ licenses and phony license plates for luxury cars. A document recently uncovered by the Turkish press revealed that Guney had also infiltrated a police intelligence unit (JITEM) working with Ergenekon to destabilize Turkey. Guney was exfiltrated to the United States and he now heads up the B’nai Yaakov Synagogue and Community Center in Toronto, Canada. Guney has denied that he has been an agent for Israel, Turkey or the United States but the MIT has confirmed the document identifying Guney as an agent for MIT is authentic.

The Turkish daily Hurriyet has reported that Guney served in MIT’s Counter-terrorism Unit (CTU) and in the MIT unit that monitors Iran. Hurriyet also reported that Guney had developed a contact at the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, Muhsin Karger, the consulate’s political affairs undersecretary……’

The plot thickens…..

When Wikileaks releases it's Turkish stash, it may turn out that it was an Erdogan/CIA/Mossad 'False Flag'!
I shouldn't think Turkey would be able to shut down Wikileaks by itself.._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

The dramatic events in Turkey overnight are confusing, to say the least. All international outlets report that part of the Turkish military attempted to carry out a coup and oust President Erdogan from power.

We are also told the coup appears to have failed, that Erdogan is safely resuming his presidency and that all the conspirators are to be punished – there is talk of the death penalty returning for the case of these plotters.

If you’re confused as to precisely what has transpired last night in Turkey, don’t worry – everyone appears to be equally confused.

A statement claiming to represent the Turkish armed forces claimed to have seized control of the government. In Ankara, army tanks were rolling through city streets, planes flying overhead, and military vehicles quickly surrounded army HQ. In what was almost a civil war like scenario, the intelligence agencies and police forces were authorised by the Prime Minister to fight members of the Turkish military. A rocket was fired into the parliament building. There were gunfights in Istanbul.

There were scenes of the army supposedly taking over the state broadcasters, including the CNN affiliate. The death toll is reported to have been high. Almost 3,000 alleged members of the coup operation are reported to have been arrested, some killed.

Erdogan called on Turkish citizens to go out on the streets and oppose the military takeover, leading to extraordinary scenes of scores of civilians marching, blocking the roads, laying in front of tanks, and even attacking the soldiers (as shown in image below). Last night appears to have confirmed that Erdogan – for all this dictator-like actions and his subversion of Turkish democracy and the principles the modern state was founded on – appears to genuinely have a great deal of popular support.

What unfolded last night appears to have been very dramatic and very unsettling. But there are conflicting views as to what is going on. And too much is still not known. We don’t know who the leaders in this coup attempt were. We don’t know how much of the military was involved or how much of the military stands in solidarity with it even now.

The first thing to acknowledge is that a military coup is part of Turkey’s historical mindset when a government is seen to be failing the people or abusing its power.

There have been such coups before and many would argue one has certainly been on the cards for some time now. The idea of the Turkish military moving in to restore order or democracy is in fact closely linked to the constitution itself.

What’s problematic in this narrative, however, is that the coup leaders – again, whoever they are – are reported to have said they would write a brand new constitution for Turkey once they had successfully ousted Erdogan and his militant Islamist mafia. That’s a little strange – why suggest a new constitution? Why not simply state a protection or restoration of the existing constitution? Or maybe it was misreported. Or maybe it was just a confused statement amid a chaotic situation.

The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey (also known as the Constitution of 1982), is modern Turkey’s fundamental foundation stone, laying out the rules for the state’s conduct and its responsibilities to its citizens, as well as clearly establishing the rights of the people and also clearly asserting that Turkey is a secular, democratic republic answerable to the people.

In fact, defending Turkey as a secular republic – particularly against militant political Islamism or any attempts to turn the country into a religious state – is regarded to be the job of the Turkish military.

Apart from possibly Lebanon, it is difficult to think of any ‘Muslim’ society as progressive, modernist and liberal as Turkey has traditionally been, particularly as it is also a democracy. This makes Turkey a relatively unique society in the world and a positive example of how moderate Sunni Islam and modern democratic and secular government and principles can work effectively in tandem and for the good of a society.

At a time when Muslim countries elsewhere are either harsh dictatorships, nations in a state of collapse or war, or aspiring-but-failing quasi-democracies, a Turkey true to its principles would stand as something of a shining beacon of both secular democracy and the modern-day capacity for a Muslim society to exist effectively and happily in that state of secular democracy.

Also given its unique position as the literal bridge between Europe and the Middle East, such a Turkey would, in these highly toxic, unstable and increasingly sectarian times, be all the more important and valuable a society and nation with a great capacity to play peacemaker and bridge-builder.

Instead Turkey is now governed by an increasingly undemocratic, overly religious and aggressive state that is seeing the society polarise and destabilise, while also engaging in illegal operations abroad and – as a NATO member – facilitating terrorism against its neighbour, Syria.

The reality is that Turkey, which for decades has sought to be a secular democracy that keeps religion at a safe distance from the affairs of government, is now being run by an increasingly dictatorial leadership that is surrounded by equally religious, Islamist conservatives who most likely regard the country’s secular constitution a nuisance. Control of the media and virtually all state institutions also means that the real dangers of this state of affairs are seldom discussed openly.

President Erdogan is a dictator in all but name. His regime has been using false-flag terrorism against its own citizens, shutting down media organisations, censoring (and even killing) journalists, carrying out purges of academics and political opposition, attacking and oppressing liberals and progressives, violating the principles of the Turkish constitution (and even seeking to change it), completely reorganising state institutions, as well as engaging in illegal hostile actions against Syria. The present Turkish state also stands accused of supporting and collaborating with the ISIS terror group.

If, for the moment, we assume all things are as they seem and take this story at face value, the Turkish military would have every business stepping in to remove a corrupt government, stabilise the country and restore the secular democracy to its proper form.

A lot of people are saying ‘well, a coup is not the way – if you want to change the government, you do it in elections’.

That, however, is naive in this sort of situation: how do you remove a regime that has taken almost total control of all state institutions, including the courts and the law, and that has frequently used violence against protesters and political opposition? It’s precisely the Emperor Palpatine scenario. And elections can be rigged – last year’s elections in Turkey are highly questioned, particularly as there was an election in June which was nullified after Erdogan’s AKP Party didn’t get the result it wanted.

It seems logical therefore that a military coup could be the only way to restore Turkish society and prevent this going any further. And in Turkey, the military is regarded as the guardian of the constitution and the principles of the secular republic: again, in essence, the military is expected to step in when a government is seen to be threatening that constitution or going off-rail.

At first glance, this is what appeared to be happening last night. And many would say ‘not a moment too soon’.

Turkish army officers and others have been accused of plotting against the present state on several recent occasions. Most recently, in September 2012, 324 soldiers were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 13 to 20 years, allegedly for plotting to overthrow the current leadership. Highly placed officers – including former chief commanders in the air-force and the navy have been sentenced to 20 years‘ in prison. One can imagine that these current coup plotters will receive very harsh treatment for their operation.

But, as much as I would love to see Erdogan gone and the old Turkey restored, it isn’t that simple: and we should always be cautious when observing situations like this one.

The first problem is the question of who exactly was behind this coup attempt? Who was in charge of the military figures? And again, how much of the military did they represent?

A statement from the military group read out on NTV television said: “The power in the country has been seized in its entirety.” But the question of who represents that group was acknowledged by all international media to be ‘uncertain’. And obviously – given how things turned out later – this was a false statement anyway.

And what if there is far more to this event than meets the eye? There are two other possibilities.

As Wily Loman has pointed out, Peter Korzun of the Strategic Culture Foundation posted an article in which he called for the Turkish military to stage a coup and take control from Erdogan’s regime. Neo-Con (and pal of the likes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) and former Pentagon official Michael Rubin has also been talking about an imminent military coup in Turkey; the same Rubin who part of the royal *-up in post-war Iraq and was also a staunch advocate for the Neo-Nazi coup in Ukraine in 2014.

Erdogan, I am reminded by reliable sources, has refused to take out another IMF loan once Turkey had paid off its previous one. And in his opposition to Kurdish autonomy or a ‘Greater Kurdistan’ state, he is opposed to the partition of Syria, Turkey and Iraq – something Washington think-tanks and Zionist strategists are very keen on.

Could this coup attempt be foreign-sponsored? Could this be Washington secretly trying to remove Erdogan?

If so, they would deny it; but it has been apparent more and more that Washington and NATO has been falling out of love with Erdogan and his regime, despite the role Erdogan’s Turkish State has played in NATO’s destruction of Syria. With a divided, volatile population and an increasingly dictatorial government, could it have been decided that it was better to remove Erdogan, who might now be seen as a liability? This is the theory Loman is adopting on his blog. I’m not sure I agree with it; but there is logic to this thought.

Remember that Washington and NATO have a history of disposing of their ‘friends’ when the time is right.

Just think back to Saddam. Saddam was an ally of Washington against Iran and the Ayatollah and was armed and propped up by the Americans for many years… until the Neo-Cons decided to destroy him and his Iraqi state completely. History is riddled with this kind of *. Even Gaddafi – though not an ‘ally’ of Washington or NATO per se – was attacked and destroyed by NATO at a point where his regime had been cooperating with Washington and the West in the fight against terrorism and Al-Qaeda.

In short, if it’s part of the plan or the perceived ‘common interest’, Washington wouldn’t see any problem in moving against its own ally.

There is no proof of that as yet. But it is a possibility. And one wonders what Erdogan’s regime would do if it discovered this to have been a foreign-backed coup. Wily Loman wrote last night, as the coup was still unfolding; ‘What’s at stake here is nothing short of earth-shattering. Turkey is a major power in NATO. If this coup fails and it turns out via interrogation and torture that the US backed this coup attempt, Obama’s destabilization efforts in Syria would be over. And we have nukes in Turkey right now not to mention a number of soldiers, pilots and advisors scattered all over the place. Erdogan says it was the Gulenists who are behind the coup and since we are behind Gulen, it could get real messy real quick.’

I’m not sure I agree with Wily Loman’s overall take on what’s going in Turkey, but he is absolutely right to raise that question regarding Washington and foreign sponsorship. Washington’s list of secretly-backed coups is very long: and Erdogan’s regime might be seen as a liability to NATO. As much as I loathe Erdogan and what his regime has done to Turkey, what those in Turkey who do support him love about him the most is that he is seen as a Turkish ‘strongman’ in the mold of a Putin or a Saddam – and as a leader who won’t be bossed around or manipulated by foreign interests or manipulations; not from Washington, nor the EU.

The explanation being forwarded by Erdogan in Turkey is that this coup attempt was orchestrated by his chief political opponent.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag reportedly blamed the coup on Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish preacher currently residing in the US. A former ally of President Erdogan’s AKP party, Gülen fell out of favor in 2013. But Erdogan’s people WOULD say that. Him saying it doesn’t prove anything.

That said, a situation where someone like this was remotely supporting the operation is the way the US would do it if it wanted to: in 2011, Libyan defector Khalifa Haftar – who had been living in Virginia, right next to CIA Headquarters – was used by Washington to promote and guide the armed uprising against Gaddafi happening two continents away. And once Gaddafi’s army was beginning to buckle under the assaults from both NATO and Al-Qaeda, Haftar was transported into Libya by the US to lead the uprising.

The third theory being propagated is that Erdogan and his people staged this ‘coup’ themselves as a false-flag.

It does seem odd that it was over so quickly; and that a military coup that was claiming to be in control of the country would allow Erdogan to waltz back in in a matter of mere hours. They were reported to have had tanks outside Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport, and yet the Sultan-President was able to return to Istanbul and the ‘coup’ was over – again, in just a matter of hours.

There are good reasons for Erdogan’s people doing this.

If there were genuine fears for a long time that a coup from the military was coming – which, after all, is what the military in Turkey is supposed to do as the guardians of the state and the constitution – then *staging* a false coup would weed out many of the potential ‘traitors’ in the military who might’ve thought the coup was real and acted accordingly.

Even failing that, this event gives Erdogan’s people the basis to begin a thorough purge of the military and make sure no coup can happen again.

It also strengthens his position propaganda-wise as well, as he is seen to emerge as the great ‘strongman’ who couldn’t be overthrown – thus validating his position and deflating any hopes among his opponents, as well as the more liberal and democratic sections of Turkish society, of removing him or changing the direction of Turkish society.

A Turkish economist and international development expert notes, ‘The coup attempt is very puzzling. For one thing, it seems to have been very poorly planned. For example, most TV channels were left operating and there does not seem to have been an attempt to take Erdogan in.’

In short, some are predicting this ‘failed coup’ is in fact paving the way for a full dictatorship and lockdown under Erdogan and his regime. Basically, having already taken full control of every other Turkish institution – the judiciary, the police force, the media, academics – this was the Erdogan regime’s move to eliminate the final, and most important, institution in Turkey: the military.

Also, it is difficult to know where the infamous Turkish ‘Deep State’ stands in all of this: one would assume it’s with Erdogan and the state, which may now be on the brink of Absolute Power, but we can’t be sure.

_______________________

All of this being said, I have no idea which theory is correct or what really happened overnight.

I am in fact mostly leaning, for now, towards a prima facie reading of the situation: that this was simply an attempted coup by a section of the military to end Erdogan’s increasingly dictatorial reign and try to restore law, order and human rights to the chaotic country.

Aside from the fact that military coups for removing corrupt governments are an established thing in modern Turkey, the main reason I currently believe this to have been the case is because the coup plotters were reported on multiple occasions last night to have stated they were doing this “to reinstate constitutional order, human rights and freedom.”

That would be a very odd thing to have them say if it was Erdogan secretly behind it – as it would imply, logically, that Erdogan’s own regime is NOT constitutional and doesn’t respect human rights or freedom (which is actually the truth – but it’s not a truth Erdogan would want to put in people’s minds).

Either way, while I have no idea what really just happened last night in Turkey, this coup attempt – genuine, staged or foreign-backed – is just about the worst thing that could’ve happened in Turkey now that it has failed. Because it gives Erdogan and the AKP more propaganda power; and moreover, the momentum and justification to conduct a final, comprehensive purge of the military to make sure there can never be another coup attempt.

That could essentially ensure the changes Erdogan’s regime has made to the Turkish state, society and constitution are long-lasting.

Yet, just to add to how confused I still am watching all of this, it does appear that the Erdogan regime does have a lot of popular support. And a coup (foreign-backed or purely domestic) becomes ethically tricky when the government has so much support from the people.

This may not be over yet.

However much the military is now purged and brought into line, there may still be enough sharp division forming in the military – just as in society – to propel Turkey closer to the Civil War scenario that many have been fearing for some time already.

As for what really happened yesterday in Turkey, more information will emerge in coming days: however, you may have to decide for yourself what you think this was – because information coming from the current Turkish state itself certainly can’t be trusted.

'....The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) had received information about a possible coup attempt. It was not the first time that MIT had received such raw intelligence. Director Hakan Fidan worked diligently from 3 p.m. until early the next morning to abort the attempt. Fidan contacted the top brass at the General Staff and took measures to potentially head off any coup. At that point, the coup plotters, much better organized and greater in number than initially thought, decided to move the timing forward rather than abort the operation. In short, Fidan’s diligence forced them to launch their plot six hours earlier than planned.

This had important repercussions that made the plotters appear incompetent. First, they failed to impose proper command and control over the armed forces. Indeed, early in the process, Brig. Gen. Semih Terzi, a prominent plotter, was killed by a junior officer. Terzi’s death not only demoralized the coup plotters but also crippled their command and control system. The plot could no longer be controlled from a single center, and instead weakly linked groups launched uncoordinated actions.

One question has perplexed many: If the operation were a real coup attempt, why was Erdogan not detained at the start? Because some of the groups lacked means of communication and therefore did not know that the timing had been changed. The members of the elite commando unit that had been tasked with seizing Erdogan at the resort town of Marmaris had turned in their mobile gadgets and thus could not be alerted to the altered plan. Sticking to the original plan, they went to detain Erdogan at around 3 a.m. and couldn’t find him......'_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

'Arab media outlets quoted diplomats in Ankara as disclosing that Turkey’s President Erdogan was alerted by Russia against an imminent army coup hours before it was initiated on Friday, while a western media outlet said Erdogan asked his supporters to remain in the streets after receiving advice from Tehran.
Several Arab media outlets, including Rai Alyoum, quoted diplomatic sources in Ankara as saying that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, known locally as the MIT, received intel from its Russian counterpart that warned of an impending coup in the Muslim state.

The unnamed diplomats said the Russian army in the region had intercepted highly sensitive army exchanges and encoded radio messages showing that the Turkish army was readying to stage a coup against the administration in Ankara.

The exchanges included dispatch of several army choppers to President Erdogan’s resort hotel to arrest or kill the president.

The diplomats were not sure of the Russian station that had intercepted the exchanges, but said the Russian army intelligence unit deployed in Khmeimim (also called Hmeimim) in Syria’s Northern province of Lattakia is reportedly equipped with state-of-the-art electronic and eavesdropping systems to gather highly sensitive information for the Russian squadrons that are on an anti-terrorism mission in Syria.....'_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

Thousands of Turkey coup prisoners 'raped, starved and hogtied'
17:00, 24 JUL 2016 UPDATED 18:22, 24 JUL 2016
BY CHRIS HUGHES
Amnesty International says it has ‘credible evidence’ Turkish police are holding detainees, denying them food, water and medical treatment and in the worst cases some have been subjected to severe beatings and torture
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/thousands-turkey-coup-prisoner s-raped-8485304

Turkish troops imprisoned after the failed military coup are being raped, starved and left without water for days, it is claimed.

Many of the 10,000 detainees are locked up in horses’ stables and sports halls - some hogtied in horrific stress positions, according to human rights campaigners.

Amnesty International has called for immediate access to prisoners after the coup a week ago which sparked a brutal crackdown and a three-month state of emergency.

More than 200 died in the uprising which aimed to topple dictatorial President Recep Erdogan - and 1,500 were injured.

Amnesty says it has ‘credible evidence’ Turkish police are holding detainees in stress positions for up to 48 hours, denying them food, water and medical treatment and in the worst cases some have been subjected to severe beatings and torture, including rape.

REUTERS/Umit BektasTurkish President Tayyip ErdoganTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan
John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe director, said: “Reports of abuse including beatings and rape in detention are extremely alarming, especially given the scale of detentions that we have seen in the past week.

READ MORE
Fears Erdogan may use UK arms to crush Turkish coup rebels
“Despite chilling images and videos of torture that have been widely broadcast across the country, the government has remained conspicuously silent on the abuse. “

Amnesty spoke to lawyers, doctors and a person on duty in a detention facility about the conditions in which detainees were being held.

They heard alarming accounts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, particularly at the Ankara Police Headquarters sports hall, Ankara Başkent sports hall and the riding club stables there.

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Two lawyers in Ankara working on behalf of detainees told Amnesty International that detainees said they witnessed senior military officers in detention being raped with a truncheon or finger by police officers.

A person on duty at the Ankara Police Headquarters sports hall saw a detainee with severe wounds consistent with having been beaten, including a large swelling on his head.

The detainee could not stand up or focus his eyes and he eventually lost consciousness.

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While in some cases detainees were afforded limited medical assistance, police refused to allow this detainee essential medical treatment despite his severe injuries.

The interviewee heard one police doctor on duty say: “Let him die. We will say he came to us dead.”

The same interviewee said 650-800 soldiers were being held in the Ankara police headquarters sports hall - 300 of them with signs of having been beaten.

READ MORE
Turkish police arrest 60 children for TREASON after they were made to dress in camouflage and hold guns
Some detainees had visible bruises, cuts, or broken bones.

'Let’s start with the history of coups in Turkey. Traditionally, they have been conducted by the military, which modern Turkey’s founder Kemal Ataturk designated as the guardians of secularism, stability and integrity. Since WWII, there were military coups in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997, and the US was behind EVERY one.

During the first coup in 1960, they tried to prevent a rapprochement with the USSR, turning off credit, and Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes planned to visit Moscow to set up an alternative source of crediting and economic assistance. The military took over, and the politicians who wanted to repair relations with Russia were removed.

The coup in 1971 was similar to the one in Chile that happened a little later in 1973, and which was also organized by the CIA. The goal was to stop the country from sliding “to the left” under politicians who held social values. The 1980 and 1997 coups were also conducted with US blessing....'

'....Considering who else could help Erdogan, there are not too many intelligence services in the world – serious ones, that is. Mossad? It’s a branch of the CIA; besides, Israel does not pursue policies contrary to America’s. And why should Israel help the Islamist Erdogan? MI6? Again, it’s practically a branch of the CIA, given the common US-British foreign policy. France or Germany? The first cannot even defend itself. The second doesn’t really exist on a global scale. Who else? China? This is not its game at all and Erdogan is by no means “their type”.

Who is left? Who has the necessary power, and who is interested in a certain scenario in Turkey?

Only Russia. It was Russia that told Erdogan about the planned coup. We have many tourists who keep going there, afraid of nothing. We have been wiring Turkish land and space topography since Soviet times. The Crimea is also nearby.

The last question is why Russia decided to tell Erdogan about the coup. His behavior shows that he is grateful to Russia. He demands the US extradite Gulen (who isn’t involved at all), but has a peaceful attitude towards Russia.

Is Erdogan Russia’s friend? Of course not. He is our enemy. But today he is mad at the US. And “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. For Russia, an Erdogan who is mad at the US is much preferable to a pro-American, unpredictable military in the Syrian war. At least now, Erdogan owes us, and the putschists owe the CIA. This opens a new window of possibilities for us in the complex game of international politics.'

This week has been marked by two major events: the USA and Russia agreed to a common plan for military coordination in Syria and the failed coup in Turkey has been followed by a massive purge of the Turkish elites.

Syria:

The Russians had really no option but to accept to work with the USA in Syria. They way in which they did it was very elegant, however: Lavrov and Kerry have agreed to a joint long-term ceasefire whose exact terms are to remain secret, which indicates to me that the Russians forced the US into concessions which the latter don’t want to be made public. How do we know that it was Russian who forced concessions on the USA and not the other way around? Simple – there was no US “leak” to the media and the Russian bombers have resumed their operation with a new intensity. Besides, it is pretty obvious that in Syria at least Moscow holds all the cards now and Kerry has therefore no means to put pressure on Russia even if he wanted to.

But the main development for Syria is still the coup in Turkey.

Turkey:

What happened in Turkey is huge. So big, in fact, that I even suspect that the numerous rumors about an Erdogan-orchestrated false flag could have been started by the US propaganda machine (since when to even mainstream media outlets even discuss false flags?). Not everybody bought into the false flag theory, not Sibel Edmonds and not M. K. Bhadrakumar. Not only did these two reject the false flag theory, they also explained in detail the role of the USA in this coup. To their testimony I can only add that I have been contacted by several well-informed readers from countries neighboring Turkey who have also told me that at least a “faction” inside the USA has had advance knowledge of the coup.

If all of the above is true, that might also explain why some have sincerely felt that this might have been a false flag. If the Russians really did warn Erdogan, then his best move would have been to let the coup begin to unmask all the conspirators and their sympathizers and only then to crack down on them.

The magnitude of the purge in Turkey is nothing short of amazing: Erdogan is clearly engaged on a massive and brutal campaign to ruthlessly purge entire social classes which he perceives, probably correctly, as hostile to his rule. So while we can rejoice that a US-backed coup has failed, we should have no illusions about how is now in power in Turkey: a ruthless and unpredictable megalomaniac who should never, ever, be trusted.

There are, however, objective reasons to also welcome these developments.

First and foremost, the Turkish military is now being decapitated and it will be in no condition whatsoever to try to crush the Kurdish resistance or, even less so, to invade northern Syria.

Second, Erdogan and Daesh are apparently on a collision course (the official Turkish version is that they did the airport bombing) and that means that Daesh lost a key supporter.

Third, now that the Turkish threat has been neutralized for the foreseeable future (5 years at least), Russia is in a much better position to deal with the Takfiri crazies in Syria and with their Wahabi backers in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

Fourth, there is a non-trivial possibility that Turkey will now openly declare the US/NATO/EU as an enemy of the regime. Not only is the USA harboring the CIA-controlled Gulen, but it turns out that some of the aircraft involved in the coup took off from Incirlik. Considering that Incirlik is basically US-run, this means that the US fingerprints are all over the coup. Right now Erdogan is still too weak to take on the US and NATO, but if he succeeds in completely purging his enemies from the centers of power in Turkey, I would not put it past him to simply leave NATO completely. This is not likely, only possible, but should that happen that would be a formidable loss for the Empire.

Fifth, there are interesting conversations taking place in the public debate in Russia. Zhirinovski, who is often used by the Kremlin to “test the waters” for various Kremlin-backed ideas, is now suggesting that Russia should form a trilateral military alliance with Iran and Turkey. Again, there are many formidable obstacles to overcome before anything like that happens but, again, this is now at least possible (maybe not an alliance, but some kind of cooperation is likely)

Sixth, for the Syrian government the failed coup is quite literally God-sent. Not that Assad and Erdogan will ever have a love-fest again, but Assad must now realize that his most formidable adversary has now been neutered and that this completely changes the strategic dynamic of the war for the liberation of Syria from the Takfiris. Add to this the agreement between Russia and the USA which, however insincere and temporary, at least precludes a direct US attack on Syria (as demanded by the 51 Neocon crazies at Foggy Bottom). Add to this the very real possibility that Trump will be in the White House next year and I would suggest that, all in all, things sure look way better today for Syria than they did just a couple of weeks ago.

Seven, no matter what happens next, Turkey as a whole has been tremendously weakened by this coup and the subsequent purge. Not only that, but this one if far from over, Edmonds even speaks of a possible “2nd wave coup”. But even if that does not happen, and even if Erdogan remains in power, the Kurds now will be facing a much weakened enemy and might decide that it is “now or never” for them to try to free themselves form the Turkish yoke. So there is a very real possibility that Turkey will simply fall apart (again, “possibility” is not the same as “likelihood”). But since we are still far away from this possibility actually materializing, it would be premature to go there. However, even if Turkey does not break up, a much weakened Turkey is likely to have to agree to the kind of concessions which a powerful Turkey would never have accepted: this is not only true for the Kurds, but also for the Russians and Iranians. In other words, now is the ideal time to begin some very intense and far reaching negotiations to try to force Turkey to become a responsible and predictable actor in the region.

The biggest problem with all this is, of course, the rise of the kind of neo-Ottoman Islamism which Erdogan has promoted to come to power and which is now infecting large segments of the Turkish society. There is now a real risk for Turkey to go down the terrible path which Algeria had to take to deal with the FIS and, later the GIA (the big difference being that the FIS never really got to power). This is why the neo-Ottoman Islamists are now ruthlessly purging both the secular Kemalists and Islamist Gulenists (a weird de-facto alliance for sure).

Russia and Iran have to be extremely proactive in trying to “channel” Erdogan into some kind of semi-sane form of state Islamism which would not serve as a Petri dish for the kind of horrors which costs so many lives in Algeria. The good news is that Turkey certainly has the potential of finding a unique form of conservative Sunni Islam which does not have to find inspiration in the Wahabi crazies of Daesh or the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Maybe Chechnia under Kadyrov could at least in some aspects inspire a modern form of modern Islamic traditionalism?

Again, the main problem is Erdogan himself. But since this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, all the countries neighboring Turkey have to accept this reality, however uncomfortable, and try to make the best of a radically new situation.

For the time being we reasonably can assume that Erdogan will prevail. If that is indeed what happens, he will be way too busy to deal with major international issues. What is certain is that Erdogan has imposed a three months long state of emergency and that he will be meeting with Putin in early August. Whether Putin “saved Erdogan” as some claim, or whether Russia just gave him advanced warning of the coup, it is pretty darn clear that Erdogan now vitally needs Putin’s support and that Putin knows that. Soon the world will find out what exactly Putin had in mind when, following the downing of the SU-24, he announced sanctions against Turkey and then added “Одними помидорами вы не отделаетесь” (you will not get away just with tomatoes). There will be a price to pay for Erdogan and Erdogan knows it. But Putin also knows that now is the time to negotiate with Erdogan, so the price will be substantial, but reasonable. At the end of the day, Russia and Turkey need each other, at least to prevent another, it would be the 13th, Russian-Turkish war.

_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

This is the sort of thing that could spark the flame of the coming global nuclear war. Those 80 US/NATO nukes in Turkey. (Of course they are reporting that children who were playing on the beach started this fire.)

A massive fire erupted near a NATO base in western Turkey. Authorities are investigating the fire as a possible act of anti-American sabotage.

The inferno started on Sunday evening in western Turkey. The fire blew through the grassy wooded area and is now perilously near NATO’s military base pushed forward by strong winds.

CNNTurk reports that the fire threatens a number of populated areas, and has already impacted a home for the elderly and its adjacent garden, T24 News reports. The channel also reports that anti-American “sabotage” in the wake of the attempted overthrow of the Erdogan government is suspected.

The fire threatens the Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) base at Şirinyer (Buca) in İzmir, Turkey. LANDCOM is tasked with supporting US troops to enhance reaction time and the unit is equipped to respond to international crises.

Although Washington maintains its largest overseas nuclear arsenal in Turkey, consisting of up to 90 tactical nuclear weapons, the US atomic weapons stockpile is stored at Incirlik air base and no such weapons of mass destruction are reportedly stored at the Izmir base.

The fire is not fully subdued despite hours of effort along with the use of firefighting helicopters and airplanes conducting water drops according to local news outlets.

Sunday’s fire comes in the wake of the failed attempt to overthrow the Erdogan government last week that the regime has blamed on US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. The country’s Laber Minister created a stir when he said on live television during an interview with HaberTurk that “the US is behind the coup.” This hyperbolic statement, condemned by the US State Department, was followed by a threat from Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yidlirim that Ankara would go to war with “any country” that supports Fethullah Gulen — a direct reference to the United States.

The US has repeatedly informed Turkey that they are unable to extradite the alleged mastermind of the coup, Fethullah Gulen, under US law without sufficient evidence. A recent poll shows that only 17% of Turks welcome the United States in the country and with Ankara shifting towards a more nationalistic posture attacks against US installations may become more likely in the wake of the failed coup.

'A group of plotters of the failed Turkish coup attempt used a WhatsApp group to communicate with each other. Bellingcat has transcribed, translated, and analysed the conversation, thereby cross-referencing the messages with photos, videos, and news reports of the evening, night, and morning of July 15-16.

The transcript is composed of two different sources. The first source is a video which was uploaded to Twitter in the morning of July 16, and appears to show the conversation on the phone of a surrendered, captured, or killed coup plotter. This video revealed the WhatsApp conversation from its start at 21:15 to 22:45. The second source is 21 photos that show the rest of the conversation, has already been transcribed. The photos are courtesy of Al Jazeera Türk’s Selahattin Günday, and we are thankful that he was willing to share them with Bellingcat. We owe many thanks to “Has Avrat”[1] for fully translating the transcript, as well as contributing to the analysis. All times mentioned are in the local time zone, which is EEST (UTC+3).

This article will chronologically highlight and analyse most the most striking parts of the transcript, including the following:

The WhatsApp group consists of high-ranking military officials, mostly of the Turkish Land Forces, including two Brigadiers and eleven Colonels;
The group is just one coordination group of the coup attempt, as it focuses on (predominantly) land forces in Istanbul and Sakarya only. There were likely other coordination groups for actions elsewhere in Turkey. It is thus important to bear in mind that this is a snapshot of the conversation of some of the coup plotters, and not a full picture;
At least one member of the group communicates with “Ankara”, where the coupist headquarters was located (probably in Akıncı Air Base);
At least three out of the five coupist regiments are part of Turkey’s NATO Rapid Deployable Corps;
The conversation and communication between the coup plotters appears to be chaotic, as several numbers still had to be exchanged amidst the attempt;
Traffic congestion is a problem throughout the night, and so are private broadcasters;
There is a constant repetition regarding taking their superior hostage, the Commander of the First Army;
Air support is requested many times, including the suggestion to strike the Bosporus Bridge;
As the morning breaks, the coup plotters realise it is over. “Shall we escape”, a Colonel asks. “The choice is yours”, he gets as response. “We have not decided yet. But we have left our position. I’m closing the group. Delete the messages if you want”.

A full transcript in both the original Turkish and translated English of the WhatsApp conversation can be viewed and downloaded here as a PDF-file.
2115 — Group created

On July 15, 2016, at 21:15, Major Murat Çelebioğlu creates a WhatsApp group with the name “Yurtta sulh”. This refers to the first two words of a famous sentence pronounced by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first President of the Republic of Turkey, in 1931: “Yurtta sulh, cihanda sulh”, meaning “Peace at home, peace in the world”. It was later accepted as the approach to foreign policy for Turkey, but also became the slogan of the Turkish Land Forces.

Subsequently, Major Çelebioğlu adds a number of people to the group and tells them that he will be making announcements in the group, and that the members can share importants updates here. “I’ll pass them on to Ankara”, Çelebioğlu says, referring to the coupist headquarters in Ankara........'

'According to Newsbud's Sibel Edmonds, the intercepted communications expose the infiltration of the CIA-Gülen network within Turkey's police
force and show that the coup was staged by the CIA, in partnership with NATO.

Edmonds estimates that over the past 20 years, 20% of the military has been infiltrated by the Gülen Movement and a whopping 70% of Turkey's police forces. Edmonds doubts that any of these discoveries will be
reported by the Western Mainstream Media.

Instead, following the lead of NBC during the night of the coup, several of the most important news outlets in the US and in the UK falsely reported that President Erdogan had fled Turkey and was seeking asylum in
Germany, in what Edmonds calls a classic PsyOp to demoralize theTurkish people.
Edmonds says that this implicates NBC as a co-conspirator in the failed coup.

Edmonds is leading a call for NBC to come clean about their collusion with the CIA and NATO, in propagating this psychological operation by
organizing an Occupy NBC gathering in front of their New York City
headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza this coming Thursday, July 28, at
9:00 AM. If anyone reading this is planning to attend, she asks to please confirm by emailing:
confront@newsbud.com and to join Newsbud's #ConfrontNBC Campaign
on Twitter.

Iran-born Edmonds, a former FBI translator who is fluent in Turkish,
Azerbaijani, Farsi and English is half-Turkish and lived there prior to coming to the US as a student at George Mason University. Although she is not particularly pro-Erdogan, she is very bothered by this covert
assault on Turkish sovereignty by the West. She notes that Turkey
would have been another Libya had this coup succeeded.

' Amidst an astonishing, relentless, wide-ranging purge that shows no signs of abating, with 60,000 – and counting – civil servants, academics, judges, prosecutors, policemen, soldiers jailed, fired, suspended or stripped of professional accreditation, it’s relatively established by now the Turkish government was very much informed a military coup was imminent on July 15. The information may have come from Russian intelligence, although neither Moscow nor Ankara will reveal any details. So, once and for all, this was no false flag.

A top, secular Middle Eastern intel analyst with an Istanbul front seat view to the coup clarified the internal political context even before the – widely expected – proclamation of a state of emergency (if France can do it, why not Turkey?):

«They knew five to six hours beforehand that a coup was in the works and let it go ahead, knowing, as they must have, that it would fail… This affair has propelled Erdogan to semi-divine status among his supporters. The way is clear for him to get what he wants, which will be a powerful presidency and removal of the secularism principle in the constitution. This would set the stage for the introduction of aspects of Sharia law. He tried this in the early years of the AKP government with the introduction of Zina, a strictly Islamic provision, which would have criminalized adultery and could have opened the door to the criminalization of other islamically illicit sexual relations as Zina is about this in general and not just adultery. But when the EU objected he backed off».

The intel source adds, «in the weeks leading up to this Erdogan had been unusually subdued. In this same period the Prime Minister had been replaced and the new one had announced a complete foreign policy reversal, including repairing relations with Syria. Did Erdogan reach the conclusion himself that the Syria policy was unsustainable, or was it forced upon him by the party elders, against the background of the tremendous damage it has done to the country in various ways, let along to Syria? If it was pushed on him, then the failed coup gives him the opportunity to reassert his authority over the top echelon of the AKP. Certainly this came at a most convenient time».

Turkish historian Cam Erimtan adds to the context, explaining how «at the beginning of next month, the High Military Council of Turkey (or YAŞ, in acronymized Turkish) is set to convene and it is expected that a large number of officers will be made redundant then. The Turkish state is set to engage in a cleansing exercise, removing any and all opponents of the AKP-led government. This coup-that-was-no-coup then provides ample ammunition for a thorough culling of the ranks… even as the President has been pointing the finger across the Atlantic at the shadowy figure of Fethullah Gülen and his supposed terror organization FETÖ (Fettullahçı Terör Örgütü, or Fethullahist Terror Organization), insinuating that the coup plotters are part and parcel of this shadowy, clearly elusive, and possibly even non-existent, organization».

The end result won’t be pretty; «Erdoğan is now also being referred to as Turkey's Commander-in-Chief, which would indicate, among other things, that he regards the attempted coup as a personal attack on his figure. Whatever the coup plotters' motives might have been, the end result of their actions will be an even more wholehearted and enthusiastic acceptance of Erdoğan's policy of Sunnification and possibly a rather swift dismantling of the nation state that is Turkey, to be replaced by an «Anatolian federation of Muslim ethnicities», possibly linked to a revived caliphate, as well as a possible return of Sharia to Turkey».

It’s as if Erdogan has been blessed with a reverse Godfather effect. In Coppola’s masterpiece, Michael Corleone famously says, «Just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in». In Godfather Erdogan’s case, just when he thought he was hopelessly entrapped, «God» – as he admitted – pulled him out. Talk about a Sultan of Swing.

The Lions against the Falcons

As Erdogan solidifies his internal iron grip, a formerly iron clad connection – NATO/Turkey – slowly dissolves into thin air. It’s as if the fate of Incirlik air base was hangin’ – literally – by a few, selected radar threads.

There’s extreme suspicion across the spectrum in Turkey that the Pentagon knew what the «rebels» were up to. It’s a fact that not a pin drops in Incirlik without the Americans knowing it. AKP members stress the use of NATO’s communication network to coordinate the putschists and thus escape Turkish intel. At a minimum, the putschists may have believed NATO would have their backs. No «NATO ally» deigned itself to warn Erdogan about the coup.

Then there’s the saga of the refueling tanker for the «rebel» F-16s. The tankers in Incirlik are all the same model – KC-135R Stratotanker – for Americans and Turks alike. They work side by side and are all under the same command; the 10th Main Tanker Base, led by Gen. Bekir Ercan Van, who was duly arrested this past Sunday – as seven judges also confiscated all the control tower communications. Not by accident Gen. Bekir Ercan Van happened to be very close to Pentagon head Ash Carter.

What happened in Turkish airspace after Erdogan’s Gulfstream IV left the Mediterranean coast and landed in Istanbul’s Ataturk airport has been largely mapped – but there are still some crucial gaps in the narrative open to speculation. As Erdogan has been tight-lipped in all his interviews, one is left with a Mission Impossible-style scenario featuring «rebel» F-16s «Lion One» and «Lion Two» on a «special mission» with their transponder off; their face off with loyalist «Falcon One» and «Falcon Two»; one of the «Lions» piloted by the none other than the man who shot down the Russian Su-24 last November; the by now famous tanker that took off from Incirlik to refuel the «rebels»; and three extra pairs of F-16s that took off from Dalaman, Erzurum and Balikesir to intercept the «rebels», including the pair that protected Erdogan’s Gulfsteam (which was using callsign THY 8456 to disguise it as a Turkish Airlines flight).

But who was behind it all?

Erdogan on a mission from God

Notorious Saudi whistleblower «Mujtahid» caused a sensation as he revealed that the UAE not only «played a role» in the coup but also kept the House of Saud in the loop. As if this was not damning enough, the self-deposed emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad al-Thani, very close to Erdogan, has alleged that the US and another Western nation (France is a strong possibility) had staged the whole thing, with Saudi Arabian involvement. Ankara, predictably, denied all of it.

Iran, on the other hand, clearly saw the long game and was a staunch supporter of Erdogan from the start. And once again no one will talk about it, of course, but Russian intel was very much aware of all these moves – something added credence by President Putin’s prompt phone call to Erdogan post-coup.

Once again, the basic facts; every intel operative in Southwest Asia knows that without a Pentagon green light, Turkish military factions would have had an extremely hard, if not impossible, time to organize a coup. Moreover, during that fateful night, until it was clear the coup was a failure, the plotters – from Washington to Brussels – were not exactly being described as «evil».

A top American intel source, which does not subscribe to the usual Beltway consensus, is adamant that, «the Turkish military would not have moved without the green light from Washington. The same thing was planned for Saudi Arabia in April 2014, but was blocked at the highest levels in Washington by a friend of Saudi Arabia».

The source, thinking outside the box, subscribes to what should be regarded as the key, current working hypothesis; the coup took place, or was fast-forwarded, essentially «because of Erdogan's sudden rapprochement with Russia». Turks across the spectrum would add fuel to the fire, insisting that more than likely the Istanbul airport bombing was an Operation Gladio. Rumor mills from East to West are already advancing that Erdogan should leave NATO sooner or later and join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

As much as Erdogan is an absolutely unreliable player and a loose geopolitical cannon, an invitation from Moscow-Beijing in a not too distant future may be forthcoming. Putin and Erdogan will have an absolutely crucial meeting in early August. Erdogan has been on the phone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. What he said did send shivers throughout NATO’s spine: «Today, we are determined more than ever before to contribute to the solution of regional problems hand in hand with Iran and Russia and in cooperation with them».

So once again, the defining early 21st century choice is in play; NATO against Eurasia integration, with Turkey’s Sultan of Swing aptly swinging right in the middle. «God» certainly toyed with the tantalizing scenario when he spoke to Erdogan on Face Time.'_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

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